Crypto Space Over The Past Week From 26 February To 4 March, 2018

At the end of the week, we resume everything that the crypto community talked about over the past seven days. Spring warming came to the market: bitcoin price is growing again, Litecoin Core v0.15.1 official release has held, and Bitfinex and Coinbase SegWit suppory has a significant impact on the operation of the bitcoin network.

Bitcoin

The SegWit support by such large players as Bitfinex and Coinbase almost immediately doubled the percentage of SegWit transactions in the bitcoin network, and the increases the number of nodes in the Lightening Network. This has already made transactions in the bitcoin network faster and cheaper.

At the same time, old problems have been preserved: for example, Bitmain's monopoly in bitcoin mining. In response to this "centralization of bitcoins," the anonymous owner of the Bitcoin.org portal and the Bitcointalk forum, under the pseudonym Cobra, wrote an open letter to the community asking them to think about changing the Proof-of-Work algorithm.

Poloniex Has New Owner

At the beginning of the week, it became known that Circle aquired the American cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex. This is a significant step, which can turn the exchange into one of the largest players in the industry. Poloniex options will allow Circle to compete directly with such exchanges as Coinbase, Bittrex and Kraken. After the sale, Circle will begin the process of licensing Poloniex to the SEC and FINRA, as well as introducing on-site operations with fiat funds.

Scammers, Hackers And Exchanges

The expected public ICO of Telegram messenger, which was scheduled on March, may not take place at all. Instead, the company may conduct a closed token sale among investors. But scammers have their own plans: the telegramfoundation.org, allegedly owned by the Telegram Foundation, is raising funds for a campaign called public ICO TON tokens. Attackers send e-mail, and also conduct fake Twitter (@ico_ton), offering all comers to buy tokens TON for bitcoins, litecoins and ether.

Other scammers on Twitter pretend to be people well known in the cryptocurrency community and the technology world such as Vitalik Buterin, Ilona Mask and John McAfee. They convince people to send them hard-earned broadcast. At first, the scammers used not verified accounts. The problem attracted the attention of Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, who publicly assured users that the experts work to address this issue.

The saga of the largest hack in the history of cryptocurrency space continues. As a result of BIG Blockchain Intelligence Group research, part of the funds stolen from the Coincheck exchange discovered on the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange. BIG President Sean Ansty refused to name the exchange and the amount, but said that the research results would be transferred to law enforcement agencies.

And while some hackers fraud other people, others return the stolen fund. So, Coindash wrote in a blog that its wallet received 20,000 ETH from an address associated with an unknown hacker who last year stole about 37,000 coins during the ICO. This is the second time the hacker returns Coindash funds.

Officials, Judges And Legal Bitcoin

Deputy Minister of Communications and Mass Communications of Russia Alexei Kozyrev said that his department is in favor of creating an exchange in the country where miners can exchange the extracted cryptocurrency for fiat. In his view, the creation of such an exchange will allow the state to control crytpo space and will give the opportunity to impose taxes.

During another trial in the case of Moscow businessman Ilya Tsarkov, his financial manager Alexey Leonov asked to include the cryptocurrency in the bankruptcy lot, but the court refused to grant this request.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) engaged in large-scale data collection among employees of the blockchain companies in the investigation of the activities of the crypto-currency markets. There is summons has addressed to employees of crytocurrency companies, as well as their advisers, among which are often known in the cryptocurrency sector of the individual.

The Ministry of Finance of Germany stated that holders of bitcoins will not pay taxes for using cryptocurrency as a payment facility. According to the new document, Germany from the point of view of taxation will consider bitcoin as the equivalent of a legal means of payment.

Old Critics

Despite the fact that CEO JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, called bitcoin "fraud", the bank is now very serious about cryptocurrency, explicitly recognizing the blockchain technology as a threat to its future. In an annual report of February 27, JPMorgan Chase first named bitcoin and ethereum "risk factors" for its business, recognizing digital currencies as new forms of competition that can make it worry for its funds and even reduce prices.

Bill Gates, who was also never a special fan of cryptocurrencies, this time called them "the direct cause of death", implying the ease with which they can use drugs on the Internet. According to the billionaire, the anonymity of cryptocurrency has nothing good and useful for society.